


no place in the world that can compare

by icarusandtheson



Category: In the Heights - Miranda/Hudes
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Relationship, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 20:26:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18948217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarusandtheson/pseuds/icarusandtheson
Summary: Benny hums. “Remind me to get you a bigger couch after I strike it rich.”Usnavi snorts, knocks his knee against Benny’s. “That’s all I get for putting up with you all these years? A slightly less shitty couch? That’s cold, dude.”“Yeah?” Benny’s laugh is warm and sleep-rough. “What would you want?”“A nicer apartment, for starters.”-----A regular night at Usnavi's place.





	no place in the world that can compare

**Author's Note:**

> This is situated in the same universe as "make you feel brand new", but before the events of the musical.

Usnavi wakes up warm to the television still on, faint music playing. He squints at the screen, the glow offensively bright. He can’t remember what they were watching -- he wants to turn it off before it solidifies the buzzing ache in his temples, but searching for the remote seems like more work than he’s willing to commit to right now.

He glances over at Benny, slumped asleep against the arm of the couch. Usnavi considers waking him up and sparing him the inevitable discomfort from cramping his body into the too-small space, weighs that against interrupting Benny’s sleep after a brutal day at work.

Usnavi stretches, grimacing at the crack in his own back. That’s starting to happen more often these days, and it doesn’t do much to make him any more excited about tomorrow’s deliveries. Sonny will never let him hear the end of it if he pulls something stacking inventory.   

Benny shifts at the movement, the couch creaking under him. “Usnavi?” He scrubs a hand over his face. “What time is it?”

“Two?” Usnavi guesses. Too late, anyway. They should both be in bed, they have work in the morning.  

Benny pushes himself up and rolls his shoulders back. He stripped down to his undershirt at some point, and the glow from the TV paints his neck, his arms, all blue and shadow moving across his skin as the muscles bunch and release.

Usnavi glances back at the screen, doesn’t really see it. “I need to get up, my back is already killing me.”

Benny hums in agreement. “Remind me to get you a bigger couch after I strike it rich.”

Usnavi snorts, knocks his knee against Benny’s. “That’s all I get for putting up with you all these years? A slightly less shitty couch? That’s cold, dude.”

“Yeah?” Benny’s laugh is warm and sleep-rough. “What would you want?”

“A nicer apartment, for starters.”

Benny lolls his head back against the cushion, his eyes bright. “You want me to be your sugar daddy, ‘Navi?”

Usnavi snorts. “You’re a dick, you know that?”

“Nah, man. I see how it is, it’s cool. You want a penthouse? Fur coats? We can finally work on that wardrobe.”

“First my interior decorating choices, now my clothes. Keep going and you can sleep on the sidewalk.”

“That might be an improvement, actually.”

Usnavi rolls his eyes. “Just take the bed. At least I won’t have to listen to you complain.”

“And have you guilt me into doing all the heavy lifting at the store tomorrow? Hard pass.”

Usnavi throws his head back against the couch and groans. “Don’t remind me.” He considers for a moment, then glances over at Benny. “That’s not a bad idea, actually.”

Benny huffs. “Seriously?”

“I’ll give you coffee?” Usnavi tries, pitches his voice into something hopeful.

“You already give me coffee.” Benny stretches his arm out and shoves Usnavi lightly. “Ask real nicely, and maybe I’ll lift the heavy boxes for you,” he says, like they don’t both already know he’s going to help.  

“How are you going to lift anything when you have to carry around that ego?”

Benny smiles, a quick-flash thing in the dark. “Practice, baby,” he drawls, mock-arrogant in a way that shouldn’t be half as charming as it is. His hand falls away from Usnavi’s arm, leaves the warmth behind.

“Do you ever stop talking? Move your ass, I want to sleep and you’re taking up all the space.”

Benny scoffs. “Go to bed. I sleep here more than you do, it’s fine. You have to get up earlier, anyway. You’d just wake me up getting ready.”

Usnavi pauses, then feels guilty for pausing. “We can share, if you want. I don’t care.”

“I’d barely fit there, too,” Benny says, not missing a beat. Not that Usnavi expected him to: miss a beat, or --

It wouldn’t be the first time. It happens less now that they’re functioning adults, and they’re usually both a little drunker, but still. They’ve shared enough times for Usnavi to know that it’s a tight fit, that Benny steals the covers, that he doesn’t sprawl nearly as much as Usnavi thought he would.

Usnavi rolls his eyes. “Yeah, because you’re so huge.”

Benny’s grin is _audible,_ and Usnavi is nowhere near awake enough for this conversation.

“So that’s why you want me to help you out tomorrow, huh?” Benny folds his arms behind his head, grinning. “Wanna check out the view?”

Usnavi makes a noise that hopefully conveys the appropriate amount of disgust. “Whatever. Go to work with your back fucked up, not my problem. I’m not the one sitting in traffic for hours.”

Benny makes a thoughtful sound. “I guess we could make it work. You’re little enough.”

Usnavi groans, pushing himself to his feet. “I take it back. I’m going to bed, you can suffer.”

“What about my back?” Benny asks, even as he’s stretching out, long legs filling the space Usnavi left.

Usnavi meant it as sarcasm -- Benny’s ego doesn’t need any help, he has enough admirers to feed it on the regular -- but it does seem like there’s more of him, like this.

Usnavi stands beside him every day, but Benny rarely stands at his full height unless he’s teasing Usnavi about the difference between them. Laid out long and languid, he’s -- big. It’s not the first time Usnavi’s noticed, and it probably won’t be the last, but: there it is.  

Usnavi scoffs. “Deal with it. If you try to get into my bed I’m kicking you out of my apartment.”

“First time I’ve ever heard that,” Benny says lightly.

Usnavi slants him an unimpressed look, trusts Benny to catch the gist of it even in the dark.  

Benny’s laugh follows him into his bedroom; Benny doesn’t.

Usnavi goes to close the door, pauses. He thinks of Benny a few hours earlier, exhausted and sore, thinks of him now, grinning in the television’s blue glow, light moving over his skin -- just as exhausted, probably, just as sore if not worse, only sleeping on Usnavi’s shitty, too-small couch because they haven’t been able to hang out much this week.   

He leaves the door cracked open, just in case.

**Author's Note:**

> *Thanks for reading! Leave a kudos and comment if you liked it!  
> *Find me on Tumblr at [icarusandtheson](https://icarusandtheson.tumblr.com/)


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